Meet the team changing how people think about waste

Porta-NERDs: EPA-supported research

October 2, 2018 by Megan HanksUMBC’s Lee Blaney is
known for his innovative research on water and soil contamination,
working to keep people and the environment healthy. His latest project
takes that focus in a new direction by developing an innovative system
to recover nutrients from an unexpected source: human urine.

Blaney, associate professor of
chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, received a phase
one grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s People, Prosperity,
and the Planet (P3) program to investigate the ability of his Nutrient
Extraction and Recovery Device (NERD) technology to recover nutrients
from human urine.

This project will advance knowledge about how sustainable resource recovery technologies can be implemented. “Human
urine accounts for the majority of nutrients in municipal wastewater,
but only a small fraction of the flow,” explains Blaney. “When urine
gets diluted into the wastewater system, it makes it more difficult to
treat and recover these nutrients. So, we wanted to go to the source —
toilets.”

Blaney worked with co-PI Marc Zupan, associate
professor of mechanical engineering, and ten UMBC students to develop a
system that can recover around 90% of the phosphorus, an ecologically
important nutrient, and some of the nitrogen and potassium from
collected urine samples. These nutrients can
impair water quality by causing the formation of dead zones in places
like the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico, so developing a low-cost way
of removing them from urine could have a major impact.

Once removed, those nutrients can then be used in ways that are
beneficial rather than harmful to human and environmental health. “The
recovered nutrients can be used as a fertilizer,” says Blaney. “By
‘recycling’ these nutrients, we also avoid the economical and energy
costs associated with traditional fertilizers. It’s a win-win for the
environment and our wallets.”

All P3 projects are required to include an educational component, to
ensure researchers are sharing knowledge about the environment and
sustainability. The student role in this particular project is
significant.

Both undergraduate and graduate students have worked to develop and
institute the NERD technology, which modified portable toilets to
collect and process urine samples. In April, several students presented
their work at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington,
D.C.

Students
in Lee Blaney’s lab presenting at USA Science and Engineering Festival
in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Lee Blaney.

“I would say the biggest impact our
work had at the USA Science and Engineering Festival was getting people
to think differently about ‘waste’ by raising their awareness of
nutrient recovery,” says Josh Benoit
‘18, chemical engineering. “Most people had never heard of the term
‘nutrient recovery’ and once they learned about it were excited about
the potential of the Porta-NERDS system.”

Charles Portner ‘18, chemical
engineering, who worked with Blaney and Benoit, says that presenting
their work in Washington D.C. allowed the group to explain the
simplicity of the technology and how it can be implemented easily.
“Folks could potentially have fixtures operating on this technology
installed in their private homes or schools without having to wait for
municipal adoption,” Porter says, explaining that the system could
decrease the burden on municipal treatment systems and empower “average
folks who wanted to do their part.”

In the future, Utsav Shashvatt Ph.D ‘19, environmental engineering, hopes this work will impact communities globally. “I
am excited about the potential of bringing these cost-effective
portable nutrient recovery technologies to communities around the
world.”

And, as Sophia Lopresti ’18, global studies, states “There
are so many ways that human waste disposal affects our environment and
our future health, yet urine continues to be a ‘taboo’ topic, but not to
those who stopped at our table.”

NSF recently produced a video about research being done in Blaney’s lab. The full video can be viewed on the NSF website.